Binance Reports Major $5.9 Billion Security Breach, Suspends Transactions
On Oct. 29, Binance revealed a large security breach and blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis estimated losses at around $5.912 billion. The crypto exchange froze more than $3 billion in assets, temporarily stopped deposits and withdrawals and said it was cooperating with law enforcement.
On October 29th, Binance, a cryptocurrency platform, said that it had been hacked. In addition, it detailed the freezing of over $3 billion in assets to forestall a huge theft. A number of messages, some of which were conflicting, were put on X by the firm, which is the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world according to daily trading volumes. It stated in these posts that user funds are 100% safe and that it will compensate for any losses.
It was unclear how extensive the heist was at first. Nevertheless, Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics firm, has stated that it now estimates the stolen value to be approximately $5.912B. This represents a nearly fourfold increase above the sum stolen in the largest hack in history. North Korean-affiliated hackers stole $1.5 billion off the Bybit platform in February 2025, an incident that occurred last year.
Steps Taken by Binance After the Breach
All withdrawals and deposits were momentarily halted at approximately 0030 GMT on 30 October, according to Binance. Nevertheless, the firm has collaborated with law enforcement, performed security checks, and frozen funds. According to the firm, this number might go up even further as they collaborate with industry partners, law enforcement, issuers, and blockchain intelligence companies to find and seize more assets. The corporation and industry watchers failed to provide any details regarding the possible origins of the incident.
Ex-Binance CEO and current majority shareholder Changpeng Zhao has stated that, indeed, it appears to be a hack on Binance. He speculated that the sum might be "a bit higher" than $1 billion in losses. In response to concerns about a possible attack at the Binance exchange, Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether (the issuer of the USDT cryptocurrency), announced that his company had frozen approximately $1.6 billion. More than $800 million in USDC was frozen, according to Circle boss Jeremy Allaire. Like the US dollar, the value of USDT and USDC, two digital currencies known as "stablecoins", is tied to the value of the US dollar.
Crypto Prices Witness Steep Decline
Several industry watchers had speculated for hours that hackers had gained access to the platform before Binance acknowledged the attack. Except for stablecoins, whose price fluctuations are limited to narrow margins by definition, the majority of big cryptocurrencies saw a decline in value as a result of the news.
At approximately 00:25 GMT, Bitcoin had dropped roughly 5%, Ethereum about 6%, and Binance Coin (BNB) about 10%. Many observers are concerned that the ever-improving capabilities of AI models will jeopardise encryption and IT security standards, which is why Binance was targeted in the cyberattack. Zhao established Binance in 2017 in China. As far as assets under management, Binance is ahead of the competition with approximately $155 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.
